Florida performs inventory ahead of open data push

Florida’s expansive open records laws have IT leaders preparing a new push to open up the state’s data.

Jason Allison, the state’s chief information officer, said staff at his Agency for State Technology are taking steps to start the “inventory process” of cataloging all of Florida’s data, as they attempt to meet the standard laid out by the law that “all information is public information.”

“We’re working real diligently to understand what we have, what the authoritative source of that information is, and make it available to the public,” Allison told StateScoop at the National Association of State Chief Information Officers’ annual conference in October. “We’re working with the agencies to start to build out that framework.”

But Allison is also hoping to get his staff more help with this push. He hopes to work with lawmakers to introduce a bill that would create the position of chief data officer, and provide for an office full of data scientists, to help get the project going in earnest.

“We can actually start to take a leadership role in doing this from the executive branch and other agencies,” Allison said.

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